Thursday, September 25, 2008

A Girl like Me: A Conversation About Race, Beauty and Self-Image

Join this bitch for some film viewage followed by some keepin' it real discussions!

When?

Wednesday October 1, 2008 at 6 p.m.

Where?

Missouri History Museum in Forest Park in the AT&T Foundation Multipurpose Room

How much money are you talking, ABB?

It’s free, damnit!Join us for a candid discussion about popular images, race and beauty. The program begins with a short documentary, A Girl like Me (7:08), created by high schooler Kiri Davis through the Reel Works Teen Filmmaking program.

Davis re-conducts the “doll test” used in the historic Brown v. Board of Education case and sheds new light on how society affects black children today.

Just watched "A Girl Like Me" on You Tube.The bit with the dolls was distubing and sad.I'm a Brit living in The Bahamas and my girlfriend looks like Jennifer in the film.I think she's beautiful but most local guys wouldn't look twice.Another thing,most of the banks,resorts,restaurants etc will not hire a woman with natural hair or locks or buds which i find bewildering in a 'black' country.

I have shown this film, and others advertised on the same website, in my classes. This film in particular is painful to watch. It really reinforces the negative ways our society shapes children's minds, specifically black children and youth.

And you have to know that white children would do the same thing...teaching them a sense of privilege and superiority that we spend the rest of our lives trying to disabuse them of in our courses.

It makes me think that the old Black Panther phrase, Black is Beautiful, needs to be brought out, taught, and embraced once again...for all our children.

Oh I wish I could go! Stupid college night classes are getting in my way. Ironically the class I have is sociology.

Anyway ABB, I have been reading your blog for about a month now and LOVE it! I am not black, nor particularly angry or bitchy, yet the let's-cut-through-the-bullshit attitude totally resonates with me. Keep it up!

It's a fact that most non-blacks do not find blacks attractive. Asians, in particular, not being subjected to daily multicultural mind-soaking, typically find blacks repulsive. This is why black models are underrepresented in advertising -- what's more important to a sponsor, selling their product or making blacks feel better about themselves?

When very young black children show a preference for white dolls, it's not the result of "internalizing white supremacist conditioning." It's either the result of having had bad experiences at the hands of other blacks, or just instinctively sensing that "white" equals "cleaner," "safer," and "better."